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The Photogenic Face of Depressionhttps://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/10/21/the-photogenic-face-of-depression/
https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/10/21/the-photogenic-face-of-depression/#respondSat, 21 Oct 2017 00:52:42 +0000http://ntasd.wordpress.com/?p=1448Continue reading "The Photogenic Face of Depression"]]>Ever heard the phrase “You don’t look like you have depression” or even “What have you got to be depressed about?”

As if depression has this stylised look that is recognisable or a person has to have something to be depressed about. Maybe a depressed person should have the black sweepy hair, fingerless black gloves, heavy black eyeliner and studded chokers. Too stereotypical? Well… maybe someone with depression must have a deathly disease or some other awful circumstance in their life that they have a reason to feel depressed about? Maybe.

Or maybe Depression is simply something that unfortunately comes to the people who on the outlook look happy and cheerful, and seemingly have their lives together, but they have this uncontrollable low feeling that they can’t shake despite good stuff happening.

My parents and I suspect I have depression. It isn’t serious by any stretch of imagination and it’s not something I’m going to seek medicinal intervention for because I feel I am coping without it. However it does effect the way I build relationships, my motivation to do things and also generally the way I interact with people.

I have said previously that I work as a Front of House Team Member (and Part Time Management) in a restaurant. You have to pretend and become someone else when your in this job. If you’re not charismatic, funny or a salesperson, you have to become each one of them to do well. Outside of my job, I’m not a socialite. I endeavor to keep out of the way and stay in the quiet as much as possible. This may have been evident in my previous posts. I’m worried that the people around me don’t really want me there and that I’m essentially just a ‘cling-on’.

I’ve talked with my parents to possibly reduce my hours at work just because I feel exhausted by both the hours and also from just feeling down almost all the time. I’d like to think people see me as happy, talkative and maybe a little eccentric at times. When I come home and I’m in my bedroom with everyone asleep and my brain won’t switch off, that’s when I’m the most low.

Depression isn’t something that has a look or is circumstantial. I mean, Robyn Williams also known as Mrs. Doubtfire or as Alan Parish, suffered from Depression and he was a comedian! Did he look like he had depression?

Depression is this horrible clinging shadow that doesn’t disappear when the sun goes behind the clouds. It puts a horrible twist into everything and doesn’t let up. I dropped out of University cause of Insomnia and (I now suspect) Depression. I vividly remember a friend telling me to go the doctors and getting depression tablets while there because I wasn’t sleeping, stressing so much about my Uni work and just not wanting to come out of the four walls of my bedroom.

I was then called into a meeting with my Course Leaders because I was failing that year. I couldn’t keep up with my work load. I was missing lectures because of Insomnia and because I simply couldn’t leave my room. The good days was when no-one was in the house I was staying because it meant I didn’t have to face anyone. It was then that my Course Leader suggested my suspending my year and possibly returning at the start of the next year.

I didn’t.

I left University with a Level 4 University Qualification in Illustration.

Depression isn’t just one type of person and that one type of person doesn’t have depression. I smile a lot. I joke a lot. I try and make other people around me feel happy. I’d like to think I’m polite. I’m not moody. I’m not crying every 5 minutes. I don’t want to kill myself. I don’t think the worlds out to get me. I don’t hide my face under a hood or behind a mop of hair.

Depression is just little old me. Depression my friend at work who doesn’t think I realise. Depression is my close family who I see everyday who doesn’t realise I notice their sudden mood changes when certain other people come around. Depression is me, who despite trying to be happy and cheerful for others, feels alone and sad almost all the time.

Don’t stylise depression when depression isn’t an Instagram Filter. We smile, we say hello, we act normal. Don’t think that surface water is as deep as we go.

]]>https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/10/21/the-photogenic-face-of-depression/feed/0bluupandaa#HePutARingOnIthttps://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/08/30/heputaringonit/
https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/08/30/heputaringonit/#respondWed, 30 Aug 2017 00:16:53 +0000http://ntasd.wordpress.com/?p=1374Continue reading "#HePutARingOnIt"]]>We’re slowly getting a following on our blog (when we post that is)… and we know some of you don’t either have us two on Facebook… so we thought we’d announce this here too!

On the 12 August 2017 at roughly 11:30… Dale proposed!!!

He took me to Sissington Castle in the UK, and after a bit of a walk around the gardens, got me down on a bench and popped the question! (on one knee!).

He forgot his words so literally got straight to the point… he had planned a speech bought he couldn’t stop shaking… even after I said Yes.

So now we’re wedding planning like crazy!

Dale and I will be doing video blogs (just because it’s easier for us to do together) of our wedding planning process… which will be both sharing the joys of wedding planning and express our struggles with wedding planning which we have already encountered!

I heard it today in fact at work! One of my colleagues was serving a table who, coincidentally were from my neck-of-the-woods in Staffordshire (the mum even came from the EXACT little village that my Dad grew up in… I regret not getting her name). It was mentioned to my colleague that one of the daughters were Autistic so they’d like somewhere quite quiet. My colleague mentioned me and mentioned how I had a boyfriend who was Autistic and Aspergers.

Before I continue, I just want to assure everyone I’m not blasting my colleague. She’s a lovely lady and we get on very well. She’s very inquisitive about Dale and has even asked me to teach her some sign… so this isn’t a ‘bitching’ session against her.

When she told me, I just had to correct her. It drives me nuts when I hear people say the ‘and’ between Autism and Aspergers, as if they’re two different things.

Aspergers IS Autism!

Just the same as Melanoma is Cancer! Or Dyslexia is a Learning Disability.

I’m sure people have heard the ‘Autism Spectrum’. That’s because there are LOADS and LOADS of different characterisations and degrees of Autism. You have High Functioning and Low Functioning. Aspergers is higher on the list… but it is still Autism and should still be treated thus; not as someone who is a burden, but as someone who just needs allowances.

I’m not sure where this distinguished gap has formed between recognising Aspies as Autistic; I’d asked another colleague as she herself is married to an Aspie, but I believe it has originated initially because, as I have noted myself, Aspies tend to be harder to diagnose because they seem ‘normal’ (whatever normal is). Aspergers tend to not be the more publicised ‘Autistic Vegetable’* that just hum to themselves and have violent outbursts when touched or there’s too much volume. My Colleague mentioned that her husband was diagnosed in Canada at a fairly young age, but wasn’t diagnosed as ‘Aspergers’ but the more blanketed ‘Autistic’ because Aspergers wasn’t recognised as a Mental Condition.

The trouble with that is, because Aspies are more highly-functioning, people either denied the Autistic Diagnosis and continued their every day life, or they sent their child to a special school which dumbed them down.

I repeat, ASPERGERS is AUTISM.

It’s just a different characterisation. Aspies can still be over stimulated and have Sensory Overload. Aspies still don’t really like touch. I’m blessed to have Dale, as I have said before, who loves me cuddling him, kissing him and holding hands with him (but even then it just selected people), but some Aspies can’t stand it. Aspies can be possessive and obsessive. Aspies can be very one-track minded. Aspies can be very non-vocal.

No two Aspies are the same… the same as no two lightening bolts hit the same spot. I’ve met three other Aspies since meeting Dale.

One couldn’t stand touch, apart from his mum. He couldn’t even deal with someone sitting next to him, apart from occasionally me because I earned his trust. But even then, it had to be only when he was okay with it.

Another gave me a hug in greeting on my first day of meeting him. Dale didn’t even shake my hand on our first meeting. However this guy certainly loved to talk about his interests, and he was very outspoken.

Another was quite outgoing! On initial meeting, I didn’t click she was an Aspie until someone told me she was.

And of course there’s Dale. You know pretty much all about him… so I don’t need to tell much about him.

However, I feel this really does demonstrate the serious lack of awareness people have about Autism.

The danger of not recognising Aspergers as Autistic, is that people don’t understand their needs because they still think Aspergers is a separate thing.

When Dale goes quiet all of a sudden, I had people get irked because he’s stopped being social with them, when actually it’s either because the situation is too much for him or he can’t figure out the appropriate thing to say and when to say it. When he’s had to lock himself away because he’s had a full on week/couple of days or day, I’ve had people become annoyed because he needs to man up. When actually he’s probably mentally exhausted and just needs to decompress and recharge so that he can give the next social event his best effort. But because they still see Aspergers as something different to Autism, they can’t get their head round it.

Another people confuse is Anxiety and Autism/Aspergers. I’ve heard some people say that Anxiety is a symptom of Aspergers.

No! Anxiety is a completely separate diagnosis.

Anxiety is common among Aspies, but it isn’t a characterisation. Not all Aspies have Anxiety. Anxiety can be, in some instances, cured! Anxiety IS a disability. Aspergers is NOT. Assuming this correlation would be effectively saying that eating Bacon gives you Cancer (now days, everything gives you cancer). When actually, no, it’s just merely a coincidence.

So people… Please please PLEASE stop saying Aspergers and Autism!

Because ASPERGERSISAUTISM

*DISCLAIMER: I use ‘Autistic Vegetable’ to represent the way the Media and the way none awareness people may think of Autism. This is in no means to suggest that Autistic People are Vegetables because they most certainly are not.

]]>https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/aspergers-is-autism/feed/0bluupandaaMan of my Life!https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/man-of-my-life/
https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/man-of-my-life/#respondSun, 16 Apr 2017 13:10:46 +0000http://ntasd.wordpress.com/?p=1203Continue reading "Man of my Life!"]]>Half Term has hit and it just seems like too many things are happening at once and piling up!

I’m feeling more lonely then ever after an episode last week of where I just wanted to get out of the house… but had no-one to hang out with. Mum was a work, Dad was at work, Brother was at school, Dale was at work and practically what felt like my only friend in Brighton was out spending her morning with her boyfriend.

So in a fit of desperation, I drove off in my car, parked at the side of the car and wept. Wept because I felt so alone. And wept is such an old fashioned word to use, one that you only see in old storybooks… but I feel it is apt. There I was, sat in my car just crying my eyes out cause I could not bring to my mind anyone who I could just text ‘What you up to today?’

I’ve been working crazy shifts at my job which are all evening shifts and take over the most of my weekend. Apart from my colleagues (who I would say are my friends, but wouldn’t say they’re people I can just text and see if they want coffee at costa… Except perhaps Sharon and Lily… and now my mum) and the mass amount of customers that come in through the restaurant doors, I don’t have time to socialise.

Mum and Dad have gone up north to visit my Grandparents, and I’m taking care of my brother while they’re away.

Friday night I came home from work, after working from 10am to roughly 11pm, and discovered that my little brother hadn’t eaten anything for dinner. He’s 14 so was capable to cook for himself, but I felt like such a failure for not being able to look after him when he was depending on me. I was mad! I was mad at everything, not to mention I hadn’t eaten anything either since 9am, so I was starving too. I was mad at me, him, work, parents, siblings. Even the internet hub took on onslaught of bad language from me! I ended up driving down to McDonalds with the brother, apologising profusely to him, and buying us a McDonalds feast. Not nutritious, but it was better than nothing.

I’d also messaged my sleeping Dale that night too… and Saturday morning I woke up to him telling me and bro to come over to his flat for breakfast. We had prearranged that he would hang out with the brother while I was at work… but Dale knew the gravity of the situation after Friday Nights Frustrated Messages.

So from 10am on Saturday morning, my wonderful boyfriend cooked me and my brother breakfast, gave me a blanket and let me sleep on the sofa, allowed me to use the shower, gave me a kiss off to work and looked after my brother until when I came home from work at 23:30 to pick the brother up. However again I was in a foul mood after not leaving work till late.

And the amazing guy just stood there… let me have at it, then just pulled me into my arms while I let all my frustration out into tears.

He didn’t yell back at me, he didn’t just storm off. He just held me silently. This man who is… by public opinion… supposed to be emotionally switched off and supposed to approach things in such a spock-like manner… completely reacted in the 100% appropriate way.

I thanked him countless times last night… and I’m sure I’ll thank him countless times in the future…

Today, I’m still not 100% but I’m ready to face it head on. What mood I’ll be in when I get home I have no idea… Hopefully it will be much better!

]]>https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/man-of-my-life/feed/0bluupandaaMade a U-Turnhttps://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/made-a-u-turn/
https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2017/01/30/made-a-u-turn/#respondMon, 30 Jan 2017 02:09:01 +0000http://ntasd.wordpress.com/?p=1108Continue reading "Made a U-Turn"]]>I’m back waitressing at my old job, and at the moment feel a little over my head.

Unfortunately, my job at the Learning Centre had to be left as I wasn’t in a financial position to continue. I do miss it… everyday. I miss working with the amazing kids that I say every Monday and Tuesday.

One of the students I had was taken out of school because of issues they had. The student was sometimes difficult, and I did lose my patience sometimes, but it seemed that I was the only one who could get through to them. Just before Christmas they had decided they wanted to return! My Sister (who had come to work with me for two days and met the student) saw the them on her bus to work and the student started a conversation with her.

Amazingly the student said that they missed the Learning Centre and Me! I had given them the drive to go back to school. I’d given them confidence to believe in themselves and now they’re doing well in school!

There are certain students who I have seen grow so much in the 5 months I was with them. Some students who were hardly interacting with people at all I saw make friends and completely flourish in class. I saw students gain a passion for learning and really setting their personal bars high, challenging themselves to be their best. I will miss it! I also deeply miss the team that I worked with! When I was unsure how to deal with something or approach an issue, I did have my team that I could get an opinion from!

I cannot mention names, genders or age of the students relating to the above due to Child Protection reasons. I also cannot divulge the name or location of the Learning Centre for the same reasons.

However, my other life-long dream is owning my own cafe/restaurant.

Before I had left my waitressing job at the Harvester, I was in training to become a team leader/shift supervisor. It was a step on a ladder to achieving my dream. I went back to that job and am again being trained into taking on that role as Shift Supervisor.

I’d hit a few road bumps (been late a couple of times due to the dramatic working hours change – from a 9-5 job to a all over the place shift job – and also made a few poor decisions which inconvenienced the team), but thankfully the management is being very gracious to me and giving me a little leniency on me being a complete doofus! Going back hasn’t been easy, especially going back in the position I went back in. So, like I said to my boss, I’m kicking myself up the arse and sorting my crap out!

For the past few months I’ve battled very hard with feeling depressed and unfortunately, my family and Dale would get the brunt of it.

It got to the point of one day literally dropping all plans and telling everyone that I literally didn’t want Human contact with anybody. I think I spent pretty much a day and a half on my own. It was only broken by my worried mum coming to make sure I was okay.

Dale and my Family are in full support of me going back to the Harvester, even if it means most of our evenings are taken away and that we now don’t have full weekends together. It is hard… I miss them. However it makes the times that I do spend with them a lot more precious. It’s more than likely I won’t get Valentines Day with Dale, as that’s a popular day in any Restaurant. However… I must must must remember to book our 2 Year Anniversary off (which will be 29th March ^_^ )

So, It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster start to 2017, and we’re only 30 days in! (I literally just had to check that! It feels like it’s been 2017 for ages!) Thankfully I have a Family, I have Dale, amazing friends and a omnipresent Father who knows everything that’s happening (just wish he’d wake me up on time in the morning).

Lastly, bit of a promotional drop… If you’re in Brighton, please please please come a check out The Katarina, Harvester! We’ve had a major overhaul of our Service Skills and our Food Production! Not too long back the Restaurant wasn’t doing amazingly and was struggling to make ends meat… but now we’re steadily hitting targets and our reputation is steadily on the rise again!

It’s taken me so long to write this follow up post for a few reasons, some of which being that I firstly didn’t want to write it prematurely and not allow the previous post to have the full effect. Secondly, I wanted to make sure that a follow up post was correctly thought out and written so people didn’t misjudge my intentions. I also didn’t want to contradict the purpose of the original or even to sweep the first under the carpet.

This is a follow up post however it doesn’t mean the problem still isn’t a problem.

I had mixed responses regarding the post, mostly all being supportive and wanting to help the issue. Fewer were responses about whether such a public media was the correct way to approach it. So before I report the changes I’ve felt and seen within my own church regarding the subject, I will tackle the Public Media.

I had written my ‘essay’ firstly on my notes app on my phone after an incredibly lonely day at church. No one had said hi to me apart from the people who’s job it was to say hi to me. People who I had known pretty much all my life didn’t even give me a blink. I had originally written the essay in partly anger, partly upset and unforgiveness. My original intent wasn’t for it to go on the internet; I’d written it because I express my feelings better in words. I had then showed it to my mum so she knew how I felt without me tripping over my words (or saying the wrong thing, which I do a lot), and she read it. She heard me. She then encouraged me to post it to the blog, which I’m glad she did.

I posted my essay on this blog for reasons as follows:

I express my feelings better in words

I felt that if there were anybody else in the same situation (which there were) they needed to know it’s not just them being introverted or unsociable

It wasn’t just a ‘my church’ problem

I started having people contact me about how they felt exactly the way I did. I had people start talking to me at church because they were in the same metaphorical boat as me.

A Youth Leader that I had when I was in Youth Work contacted me and asked to meet up. We went for Waffles and Ice Cream and just talked. We did talk about my blog post and how I was doing. We also talked about how my church leader had contacted me wanting to have a meet up too. He’d been deeply upset by my blog post, not because I had offended him, but rather because he doesn’t want anybody to feel like that in his church.

He asked whether I had unforgiveness and, I’ll be honest as I was with him; Yes. I do. I’m working on that but it’s difficult to forgive being forgotten about especially when you feel forgotten about by so many people.

I actually give myself credit for the fact I didn’t start crying in front of him, because I always seem to end up a blubbering mess when talking about my feelings!

He’d also asked where will I go from here (writing the blog post). I’m still trying to figure that out too. I find it difficult to just strike up a conversation with people, even if those people I’ve known for years. My issue, as said in previous posts, is that I don’t want to inconvenience people. I hate feeling the uncertainty of whether the person likes me or whether that person wants to even speak to me.

I’m glad he didn’t just suggest for me to go talking to people, because that really showed he had listened, which sometimes I find if I have a verbal discussion with someone, I sometimes get over-talked and therefore, people miss what I’m all about.

My life long ambition is to own a cafe/restaurant accessible for everyone. So I guess, in a sense, I want to lead a social hub, where people can gather, make friends, bring friends and have a background noise of conversations. Silence, when you’re an introvert is so deafening and even though I sometimes do prefer just being alone typing away on a blog post, I do like being around people. It’s no coincidence then that my last job was Waitressing and my current job is working in a Learning Centre for Homeschooled Children where I have an active involvement with the students.

So I guess my ultimate step forward would be to start hosting my own social gatherings. Maybe they wont be so popular to start with, but I’d like to at least try. I’m a fairly good cook, so maybe I’ll provide dinner for the guys that come along.

If you’d be interested in coming along, do let me know!

I’ve also developed some other friendships in the church since the blog post. Mostly with people who have felt the same way as me so we’re of a mutual standing. I don’t think I’m at the stage of just walking up to them and having a conversation, but at least I now know there are people who feel the same. I wouldn’t have discovered that without the blog post.

I’ve also been attending a small group without my parents or Dale. Unfortunately I still don’t converse much and there are weeks I do feel lonely. However, there have been times when I’ve felt very comfortable in that setting and people engage me. I know that sounds one sided and I should be trying to equally engage them. I know that, and I’m working on it.

Finally, my intention of the article wasn’t specifically directed at my church. I have been to roughly three other churches (two in the Midlands UK and another in the south). I find the exact same thing happens. Granted, at the other south church I was hardly attending the church, mainly because of my socializing problems and the fear of just sitting on my own looking like an idiot. I’m not naive enough to think it’s just happening in my church and moreover, only happening to me, because it’s not. I knew that before I even wrote the post. The problem was, nobody was addressing it and some didn’t even want to admit it.

Has the problem magically gone away? No. It hasn’t. However, I’m also not naive enough to think that one 2000+ word essay on the internet would enact a domino-like effect and change the complete runnings of the church. If it did, the problem would have been addressed long before now and solved equally as long before now. It hasn’t, but it’s a working progress.

To those who still don’t recognise this within a church, please just glance around, see how many people are just sitting on their own in the congregation and notice how many people just walk straight passed them. Yes, they probably don’t want to socialize… and yes if they did they could make the effort too. But what if they a petrified of other people not wanting to talk to them and them being a nuisance to other people? What if they don’t have that confidence? Please, just go say hi to them. Help them!

The STRANGEST thing has happened to me today… And it’s such an out there coincidence that it’s almost as if someone planned it!

Today I was sideswiped in my car. Dale was with me and and luckily I got a witness who pulled over and offered to give a statement should I need it. Now, normally the story would end with a ‘I contacted the insurance company and now I’m waiting on the tonnes of paper work’ (I’m currently going through an insurance claim cause a stupid person decided to not stop in time and put a head sized dent in the back of my car at the beginning of October. I think my car is cursed or something), however, because it’s literally paintwork damage, my Dad advised me to see if the third party would agree to paying it straight off.

At the scene I completely bloody forgot to get the other cars number plate. All I had was her mobile number and the contact number for the witness. When it happened I did say a few choice words (… the instant reaction to someone playing bumper cars with your car) but the lady who side swiped me was reassuringly very pleasant. We even gave each other a hug.

I text her after speaking to my Dad about whether she was up for just paying straight out for a paint job, cause I think me and my Dad agree that it seems almost not worth the coffuffle of going through the insurance for a bit of coloured spray! The lady agreed and said she may do the same and use the same garage if they do a good job. Anyway, we’ve got talking and we had a discussion about my job (I mentioned at the scene that I was a teacher… explaining the mound of paper and pens I had stored in my car. It was easier than saying I was a centre manager at a learning centre for homeschooled children).

Anyhoo, turns out she has an Son who is a high-functioning Aspie and in mainstream school! You can’t make this up! So now we’re talking about conferences on the ASD Spectrum.

I posted on my Facebook the other day, asking about seeing God’s plans! Now, I’m a Christian and I believe that God has a plan for every second of my life. This may be conflicting, but I’m sure he didn’t plan for me being in an accident this morning, but I do believe he may use this to start up a whole new chapter. It can’t just be a coincidence that the person who I shared an accident with has an Aspie Son (she also had an Aspie [ex] husband) and goes to Conferences about ASD.

We’ll see where this takes me shall we? Again though, I repeat my status; WHAT ARE YOU DOING GOD?

You can sit in one spot, not on your phone and not be noticed by one person. Unless you personally make an effort to talk to someone, no one will come over. The biggest issue of course with this, especially in churches that preach family and community, is that when there is such a lack of, the foundations of the church begin to crumble and essentially what the church preaches becomes fairytales for the church attendees.

I used to be told by my family that I should make the effort to talk to people. The trouble with that is is that I fear rejection. What if the person I’m talking to doesn’t really want to talk to me, so then we’re stuck in this loop of pathetic small talk; them trying to not seem inconvenienced by me, and me trying to make it seem that I actually wanted an intelligent conversation about something other than the weather.

Church leaders are blind to this!

And the main reason why they are is because, despite the Church preaching against it, there is a hierarchy of status and popularity. If you’re put on a pedestal, either because you preach, worship or are even a favourable friend of a Church Celebrity, you rise higher in the social hierarchy meaning people want to talk to you and want to be your friend.

Through youth, if you are a son or daughter to someone who is higher in the social hierarchy, again the situation occurs, evolving into favouritism from Youth Leaders and the children who are lower in the Social Hierarchy are left behind and even forgotten about. They become just a number attending.

Church leaders are blind to it because despite their best efforts to discourage it, it is human nature to want, at worse need, the comfort of people liking you and wanting you to be near them. Some church celebrities will deny that they are a celebrity and prove my point in that they don’t realise the hierarchy that they are locked into.

The church is dead set on bringing new people into its social space, however there is no nurturing beyond that because of the nature of the human condition.

When someone from the bottom of the hierarchy enters who isn’t Christian, they temporarily jump to the top of the hierarchy. The church pays so much attention to them, that the John Doe feels part of a family. They feel wanted and so they join. They slowly begin needing less attention, and then slowly dwindle back to the bottom. If you become friends with the ‘correct’ people or make the correct noises, you may stay at a higher rank, but nevertheless, you still are less of a priority.

The Church can’t nurture against its nature.

The church being the people and the people being humans and the nature of humans to form this social hierarchy, the church can’t even begin to break this awful cycle that only people left behind feel the full effects of it.

It begins to reach the peak of its own dilemma when people higher in the hierarchy try to encourage people lower to get out more, make friends, make noise, but when doing so, the people who the lowers try to reach are higher, the higher don’t necessarily want to interact with them because it doesn’t benefit their social status within the church.

This is disturbed on many levels.

It is disturbed because the church doesn’t address it or try to upset the status quo. It just sits their happily in its own hierarchy, not wanting to unsettle the comfortability of its own popularity. The noise makers are making the correct noises and bringing people in, and the quiet people are just blindly accepting this cruel fact and remaining quiet, too afraid of rejection to rock the religious boat. When quiet people try to make noise, they are stupefied into silence when people take no notice and stop using their noises.

—

I was once part of a worship band. I played guitar, but because I didn’t enjoy being in front of everyone’s faces, everyone heard my noise but didn’t progress with me. I dropped out of doing the worship band and empty promises of being brought back into it have led me to hardly playing guitar at all. In youth, I was noticed by the head of worship at our church, I was taught by possibly one of the best guitarists in our church, however because I was shy and didn’t pester, I was forgotten about.

In youth, favouritism discouraged me to attend and I slowly faded from the youth groups without anybody chasing after me; youth leaders focusing on the children of church celebrities, or children who make good noises. The same happened to my sister, and I’m more aware of it for my brother.

Friends that I once had in youth eventually stopped talking to me and even when they see me at church, walk past me as if I was invisible. Youth leaders who I used to look up to don’t seem to care how I’m growing as a woman of God. Yes, I may not need them so much as a guiding factor, but that doesn’t mean they have an excuse to lose interest.

At a Church Camping Event, I didn’t want to go on a Community Trip because of wanting to attend a seminar. The leaders of the Youth Group implored me to go, saying that I was a leader and that I needed to go. Yet I saw know evidence that they saw me as a ‘leader’. If I was a ‘leader’, why was I so easily forgotten about? I eventually went thinking maybe they had plans for me. I later learned that they were actually down on numbers for youth going on the outing, so needed to gather numbers.

This is the other heart of the problem. Leadership mindlessly endorse people, saying that they are leaders and others look up to them, but Leadership then forget to follow through on their preaches and encouragement.

If leadership see leadership qualities in other people; train them up! Don’t just promise it, put it into action and give them opportunities. If you don’t believe it, don’t say it. Not only does it give false hope to already hopeless people, but it discourages them further from wanting to be wanted.

My church believe in prophecies, and I had many prophecies spoken over me about me being a leader, being a beacon so on and so forth. But no matter how many metaphorical pies I stuck my thumbs into, the church forgot about my efforts and didn’t chase after me when I became a mute.

I’m not asking for sudden appointment and attention, but for the recognition of the problem and the church practising what it preaches.

It’s a smile that even if you’re having a bad day, seeing him smiling makes you smile. Try though I might, I can’t resist it.

Today, Dale was a little down. Because of a new boundary we set in place and the fact I’ve got no money in light of just recently switching jobs, we’ve been pretty much spending every night with my parents, and, even I admit, it is quite exhausting. So, when dropping him home, I noted to him that he seemed off. Dale being off means he almost becomes cold with everyone. That can sometimes be put down to him being tired or processing (today he did a run, so I assumed it was that), and very rarely it could be something has upset him. All I know for definite, is that he’s not smiling, and it can take a fair bit of effort to get him smiling again.

This is Dale smiling. It’s glorious, happy, cute and infectious! Everything in his smile means he’s having fun. Whether it be him telling an awful pun joke, talking non-stop about trains or music or even him planning some crazy venture. I absolutely love seeing the Dale-Smile. And he knows it!

Today we were watching Cold Case.

It’s an American TV Crime show, based around detectives who pick up cases that have gone cold to solve them themselves. Today was batting very close to home. (I also thought this may have put Dale off… turns out it was absolutely nothing to do with it).

The show was centered around the deaf community. A young boy who was deaf was murdered in a deaf school. The detectives interrogated old girlfriends (one hearing and one also deaf), teachers, best friends (also deaf) and even his parents (also deaf). It was revealed that the boy became deaf suddenly when he attracted an illness. The boy used to play piano and was very good at it. He loved being part of the deaf community. He then met a girl who was hearing and who also loved piano. She had come to the school to teach while serving community service for a DUI. They had a brief relationship.

It was then revealed that the boy had considered a Cochlear Implant, but there was seemingly very heavy opposition to it from him best friend and parents. His best friend seemed to regard having an implant as betrayal. His parents not thinking too differently. The hearing girlfriend supporting him because of her knowing that he wanted to hear her voice and also hear music.

At the end of the program, it was revealed that the boy did get a cochlear implant, his dad supported it and his best friend did too, but after the boy had received his implant and was playing piano, the best friend became jealous (the best friend had also applied but was considered an unsuitable candidate) and hit the boy across the head with a Metronome, right where the cochlear was placed.

Throughout the program, there was the constant theme of this world – that world.

One of the detectives even asked about the separation, one of teachers saying that generally those who speak the same language, band together and form a community. The detective then saying that Sign was hardly a language as it was just hand movements, clearly showing the gap between the hearing and the deaf. Nevertheless, the detective tried to learn ASL (American Sign Language) to try and talk to witnesses/suspects. However, it wasn’t just the Hearing Character making the gap. The best friend himself was putting a huge gap between the Hearing and the Deaf. The Parents were also doing this by [originally] not being supportive of the cochlear implant, saying that it would mean that the person implanted would belong to neither Deaf or Hearing world; becoming a ‘freak’.

Now, this isn’t an old program, and Dale and I know full well the views of Cochleas by both the Hearing and the Deaf. Some people believe that, if God wanted someone to hear, he would have made them hear. Some others believe that what you never had, you wont miss, and some would rather be deaf then a computer hear for them. It’s a sad reality that such a beautiful gift can cause so much war between two persons.

If Dale had decided that he didn’t want the Cochlea, I would have been in full support of it. It’s his decision. Would it have been harder? Yes. Of course it would have. It would have probably helped with my signing a lot more, but communicating and the simple pleasures of life wouldn’t have been the same. Am I thankful that Dale did accept the Implant? Yes. Definitely. Because it makes him happy. It gives him that independency that he needs but also allows him to enjoy his favourite hobbies.

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https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/731/feed/0bluupandaaimg_002811236449_788711027917776_151337494988221059_ohttps://ntasd.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/686/
https://ntasd.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/686/#respondWed, 14 Sep 2016 22:21:58 +0000http://ntasd.wordpress.com/?p=686Continue reading ""]]>I’ve just started a new job which is 100% different to the whole waitressing gig.

I’m now working as Centre Manager/Teacher/Teaching Assistant at a Learning Centre which supports children who are home schooled; either because they can’t cope with mainstream school because of learning difficulties or other various reasons. I work at two separate locations; one location I am a Centre Manager and at the other I’m a Teaching Assistant. One is technically more hands on in regards to interacting with the students, but because of the size of the learning centres, both are pretty much the same.

Monday and Tuesday were completely different from today, mainly for reasons of it being in a completely different location, the other being completely different students.

I have taught Chinese, assisted in English lessons, not so much maths or science lessons as I’m not that confident in them subjects myself, so I feel as much of a student as my students.

Each child has their background and each child has their reasons for being homeschooled.

And they are, undoubtedly, amazing kids! They are so involved and so eager to learn, that in fact at my centre, they want to get involved in teaching! Some are quieter than others, but never-the-less are definitely a part of the crazy goings-on at the learning centre.

At one of the Learning Centreswe have one student who I’m definitely looking out for.

Under the Child Protection Act I am not to reveal the gender, age, name or locations of where specific children attend. I’m also not to go into detail of their histories as that is purely their business.

They have Autism. For the sake of this story, I’m going to call them Patty. It’s a little more serious than Dale, as they physically cannot stand touch or even sitting next to someone. At first they were a little shy, but very soon started to get involved, joining in a game of Rounders, 1 Truth 1 Lie and many other games that we play. They wanted to be very involved, very often trying to answer all the questions in the lesson or wanting to assist the teacher by writing on the board etc.

At the end of the day, when the students were about to go home, we played ‘Duck Duck Goose’. Now, this game can involve touching as it requires a child to walk round a circle of other children, patting their heads saying ‘duck’ until they decide on one child, saying ‘goose’ and then they have to run around the circle, trying to catch the ‘ducker’. While setting up the game and explaining, I did have to double check with Patty whether they were okay to be patted on their head, which good on them, they told me no. So we arranged that the ‘duck’ would hover over Patty’s head instead of tapping their head.

It was amazing to see each student go round the circle, patting everyones head and when getting to Patty, seemingly without thinking just hovered over their head.

There was once in the game, when a younger child (a younger sibling of a student) didn’t realise and did pat Patty on the head, which I did see Patty’s face drop. I didn’t want them to leave the game so I did keep an eye making sure they were okay.

And absolutely fantastically, Patty stayed in the game.

We then silently communicated that when a younger child was the ‘duck’, Patty would move into the circle to avoid being ‘duck’ed which they were happy to do.

I really really hope I see Patty again, if anything to see them grow. They are an amazing child, not afraid to let us know what they need to go about their business. In a sense I admire them. I’m not sure whether I’ll see Patty tomorrow but hopefully definitely next week!

Well Done Patty!

The Learning Centre is definitely an amazing organisation to be a part of. At normal School, children can be so vicious and sometimes very cold to one another. Here, they have a mutual respect for one another, and easily accommodate each others needs. Mainstream School, children see the differences and pick on them. This Learning Centre, the children seem to see the differences, and go “okay, this person is different, and that’s okay!”

It truly is a fresh sight to see, especially when I was seriously bullied at school myself!